Question period is supposed to be the heart of Canadian democracy, where the government is held to account by the opposition and forced to explain and justify its policies. That is, of course, not how it actually goes down, but even by the standards of Canadians’ already diminished expectations of what passes for debate in the House of Commons, Tuesday’s back-and-forth on Canada’s involvement in Iraq has to mark some kind of new low.

NDP leader Tom Mulcair asked what seemed a straightforward question of the government about the length of the mission to fight ISIS militants in the Middle East.

“Will the Conservative government confirm that the 30-day Canadian commitment in Iraq will indeed end on Oct. 4?” he asked.

In response, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister Paul Calandra rose and delivered what has to be the most bizarre non-sequitur uttered in the House of Commons in many years.

“Mr. Speaker, there’s a great deal of confusion with respect to the NDP position on Israel,” he said, apparently feeling no shame.

Calandra then repeated some statements allegedly made by an NDP fundraiser who was critical of the Israeli “genocide” in Gaza and demanded to know if Mulcair and the NDP shared the same views.

Except, that’s not really how this is supposed to work. The opposition gets to ask the questions and the government has to answer. Successive governments have degraded this process to the point of turning the whole exercise into a painful recitation of talking points, but at least there’s usually a pretense of addressing the issue at hand.

Mulcair tried two more times to get a straight answer from the government benches but was repeatedly met with absurd responses about Israel, to the point that the NDP leader even questioned the speaker’s “neutrality in this house” for allowing those answers to stand unchallenged.

"No explicit rules," but "several types of responses may be appropriate. Ministers may: answer the question; defer their answer; 1/2

Calandra’s disgraceful act on Tuesday is well in keeping with his previous performances in the House of Commons, particularly at the height of the Duffy Affair last year. Calandra, by the way, has expressed ambitions of one day becoming prime minister, so we all have that to look forward to as a country.